Sowing Seeds (Beej Bonna) 2010

An International Artist Village Residency, Andore

Indian daily life style

Colourful nuances of life unexpectedly shade the slow-paced rural India even in this
information age. Along with numerous small and big grass fields, several mountains and
swinging trees, the chirping birds hum the tale of languishment and love to the big and clear
blue sky, giving a mesmerizing, captivating and bewitching effect to the villages in Rajasthan
state of India.

Village life is a mixture of several moods, such as tranquility, harmony and innocence.
The participants are the flora, the fauna and the humans. Camels lazily chewing on fodder, a
boy gathering his cattle – goats and cows considered the real wealth are sights. While one may
see a woman milking the cow early morning, there are many women who walk few miles to and
fro just to fetch their daily ration of water from the nearest river. A maiden wearing a colourful
swirling skirt and blouse walks by, wearing sandals or sometimes barefoot, carrying on their
head a pot filled with water, a basket full of vegetables or dried sticks used as winter bonfire.
Their sense of dressing is simple, unique, and colourful. Bangles worn on each wrist match their
outfits. A round bindi on their forehead symbolizes the Indian beauty.

The women spend a lot of time helping around the house performing their daily chores.
When cooking in the open, they indulge in small banter that brings life to their daily routine of
cleaning, washing laundry, looking after their cattle and children. Present seems to catch up
with them as cement ovens have replaced the more traditional mud ovens, though the fuel
remains the same - coal, cow dung cakes and dry wood. Evenings are filled with folk songs, sung
by these groups of women while they engage in churning fresh butter from the milk pot to pass
their time.

The tweeting of countless birds is a rare mellifluous music to the urban dweller’s ears.
An occasional song fills the air with sweet melodies. One can trace it to the radio blare in full
volume at the ubiquitous tea stall round the corner, serving piping hot tea in the cold. People,
young and old huddle around the man selling tea, asking for more. Small and medium shops dot
the main road, selling groceries, vegetables and other necessities for a living. These shops
extend inside their humble homes, which are out of bounds to the outsider, unless you are
their guest. Even guests are ceremoniously welcomed in this village called Andore respecting
the Indian belief, “guests are like God.” The auspicious ceremonial rituals involve a conch
blowing, garlanding the guests with marigold flowers and applying a red dye called “tilak” on
their forehead that makes Indians proud for their hospitality.

Everyone is an artist here at village Andore. The women use clay, cow dung and hay to
make beautiful patterns on the mud walls. Ornamental traditional motifs are painted on their
front door, windows, cupboards and kitchen walls that display their zest for life. But most
villages also have specialized traditional artists, well-known as sculpture artists, terracotta
artists and potters. They create decorative as well as utility items, using century old skills. These
artists also make colourful and native clothing that identifies their community. However, like
any other village influenced by waves of economic challenges, they cannot afford to indulge in
artistic pursuits to satisfy their creative urges. Besides this, they also lack awareness and
knowledge of contemporary art practices. Hence they work with art for commercial purposes
only, using art just for their living. This has resulted in a drain of indigenous, cultural and
traditional talent.

Their necessities of life are minimum and not materialistic like the urban dreams. There
are times when the services of various castes and communities are required to provide
customary ritual goods that form part of the traditional ceremonies and practices. The
traditional artists like potters also contribute their services. This can be seen in religious and
spiritual practices, and occasions such as weddings, child birth, welcoming guest, death, local
fairs and festivals. Villagers find their rhythm and happiness by expressing themselves in these
different facets of existence. Even social beliefs find company in their colourful traditional
customs and behaviors, which paint a complete picture of this genre called ‘life’.

Unlike the artists, the youth are slowly being exposed by the media influence and
economic changes in the nearby cities of Jodhpur, Jaipur and Udaipur. These big cities are their
window to the world, a world that fuels their youthful dreams, desires and aspirations to be a
part of this contemporary world.
Rural Art

The art forms being practiced in villages are inherited and have been passed down for
generations. The prevailing village social structure in the form of caste system also does not
permit villagers to choose professions as per their choice. Professions are hereditary, related to
their castes. There are potter castes, weaver castes, etc. Their next generations also practice
the same traditional jobs. Though it did provide them with job security in ancient times, as
services of their castes could be evoked in times of festivals and religious occasions by the
upper caste and rulers, there was practically no scope for a transformation in design, form,
application and meaning.

Rural art is still commonly practiced during social gatherings. It is limited within a
boundary, stuck to religious and social traditions only. It is limited to objects of daily use, such
as wooden ornamentations, door decorations, terracotta pots, metal and stone objects etc.
Though the possibility of new forms exists, the villagers have not been open to this idea of
experimentation. For example, rural art if mixed with symbols, forms or ideas, generated more
meaning. Limitations are ideas and experiences. Generation gap, lack of awareness of
contemporary revolutions in art forms combined with rigid ways of life have proved to be the
limiting factors in design development and evolution of rural art.
 Rural art has to undergo a metamorphosis to become contemporary art in a
contemporary way. Therefore a change is needed with time. Thoughts, positive energy, and
attitude can bring about changes. This will also lead to social development process in the
villages.

Through this medium of rural art, “Sowing Seeds”, intends to create conscious
awareness about the environment, and the issues that concern villagers and their surroundings
in relation to the contemporary world. Art is a medium to express these issues, but if the
contemporary art process is communicated in their own language, it effectively addresses their
sensitivities. The messages do leave an impression on their minds.

Contemporary artists are limited to their studio spaces. A platform like Sowing Seeds
intends to expose the artists to the village world where social development is the need of the
hour. Through the medium of art, it intends to show new ways to the village artists to practice
traditional arts with the help of contemporary ideas. Artists are encouraged to define new
ideas, use locally available objects and raw materials in their creation. This exchange of ideas
with limitless communication methods would generate awareness and when practiced, would
bring about a social revolution in the form of social development.

“Sowing Seeds-2010” ARTIST PROJECTS

Chiman Dangi (INDIA)

Chiman Dangi The quaint little village of Andore was filled with cries of laughter and
happiness. The hustle and bustle of life indicated a new activity garnering the attention of the
usually somnolent villagers. Children looked around inquisitively at the artist Chiman Dangi,

Who went around the village nonchalantly, circling dumps of garbage with locally
available pink powder. Then he installed a board in the garbage highlighting the village name,
“Andore” to transmit a message. There were initial awkward reactions, and raised eyebrows.
Children of the village were curious to know why a pile of garbage was being associated with
their village name. But they soon got involved. As the onsite installation replicated around the
village, the underlying social message dawned on the villagers after some introspection, that
they would soon be welcoming international guests into their village who were participants of
the workshop “Sowing Seeds”. The local civic authorities set to work immediately to free the
village of filth and garbage lying around, signifying the triumphant success of Chiman Dangi’s
project for the workshop.

Benjamin Faga (GERMANY)

BenjaminFaga’s project highlighted both the simplicity and the complexity of rural
Indian societies along with the issues faced as they receive more urban influence. The rural
society and the traditional roles of women and children at Andore inspired his installation.
Installed in a beautiful rural landscape was a floating green screen that is used to juxtapose two
different scenes in the digital world. Here, this green screen represents today’s contemporary
world, and symbolically brings it into the rural environment. This creates a contrast by subtly
hinting at the aspirations and desires of the youth for a contemporary culture and lifestyle,
while they are still bound to the traditional ways of life. Thus the green screen metaphorically
attempts to juxtapose the rural life along with highlighting the idea of growth and existence of
countless possibilities in a contemporary world.

The most important timing of this project was the photo shoot which captured children
in front of the green screen consuming custom made green candies. This image reflected “the
hidden potential of Andore” that symbolically represents a pulsating energy throughout the
country. The consumption of green candies reflected consuming the idea of the possibility of a
different world, and a possibility of owning a future far different from their parents.
Bhupat Dudi (INDIA)

Bhupat Dudi’s project was meant to eradicate a social problem –of neglecting the girl
child. Through the platform of sowing seeds, he presented a slide show and site-specific work
of famous women personalities to the villagers and propagated the social message of educating
and encouraging the girl child, promoting her wellbeing and all rounded development. him
project was inspiring to the villagers as he promoted my belief that educating a woman will
build a healthy society and a healthy nation free of social problem. The project encouraged
women to seek their own fortunes. Only then the women of Andore village would find a place
for themselves among world personalities.

Project was related to the common Indian mindset that deprived a dignified social
status to womenfolk and denied them education even in today’s age. Through his interactions
with the villagers at Andore Bhupat observed that the progress of women was overshadowed
by the traditional social evils that still prevail in remote Indian villages. The social wellbeing of
women was grossly neglected, as they were conditioned to think that a girl is a liability, meant
to be married off. A girl requires a huge dowry to give her in-laws. Child marriages and female
infanticide though banned in India often went unreported. Even though there were good
government run primary schools in the neighborhood, the illiterate women and girls were
confined to their household chores. Participation of women in the village electoral decisions
was unheard of. It was an urgent need to change the outlook and gift her fundamental rights
enshrined in our constitution, especially - RIGHT TO EDUCATION.

Bhupat’s project sowed the seeds of a mass movement that would begin the eradication
of these social problems. The cultural program event of the Sowing Seed’s itinerary was the
chosen day to begin his project as families from the entire village showed up. The project- a
slide show projected images of world famous women with their names who were educated,
empowered, and proficient in their fields. Amongst them were the nameless images of village
girls. Bhupat explained that he wanted Andore village girls to be renowned and famous in
future. So he questioned the notion why boys and girls are not treated as one. Why the birth of
a boy should be celebrated but not a girl, when our mother, India is also a woman? Thought
provoking questions promoted the message to parents and families that educating a girl is a
sign of progress for the society and the country. It will promote a society free of social vices and
crimes.
The remaining artists too voiced their concerns on the girl child’s welfare by giving their
unified opinion supporting Bhupat’s project. Bhupat’s site specific installation was done on the
walls of a house facing the road. Portraits of women and girls from the village were posted on
the wall to give a strong message to the families, parents and guardians of girls, advertising this
new movement that had taken root and the awareness generated in the village. This aroused
the curiosity of every passerby who was new to the village. Bhupat hopes that this message will
spread like a movement to mitigate this social evil and result in bringing a change in the outlook
of the villagers, so that the future brings more favorable opportunities to our women in rural
areas.

Sweety Joshi (INDIA)

Sweety Joshi’s works show a deep rooted connection to India philosophy which is based
on the principle that self-realisation is a process to seek the truth through intrapersonal
conversations. Her artistic inspirations were derived from her intrapersonal conversations,
thoughts, senses, feelings and visuals created within her. So her creative expressions and
choices portrayed to the world reflected her inner-self. She found beauty in the simplicity of
nature and its forms. The down-to-earth and frank culture of the village impressed her.
Experimenting to enhance the beauty in Andore village, she tried to connect rural
tradition to the modern flavors. Her team work experiences in the project were expressed in
beautiful artworks created by combining cow dung cakes with mirrors. Each represent two
different energies and strike a balance between independent and team work to generate a
creative expression. The dry, arid, empty and lonely feel around the village, motivated her to fill
colors and change the look and prickly feel of acacia thorns. In her creation, she used cozy
colored and golden threads around the thorns to soften the look and feel around it.

With her belief, ‘there is a very thin line between two cultures, which merge to become
one when the line disappears, and fuse to give only one art and culture,’ she created an
abstract composition of a map of Andore village. By using colourful threads of small stitches
on paper she symbolically connected Andore people of different human natures, traditions,
and arts, all being represented on one map. A mid air sculpture of a hanging winnow with
golden and silver lace was interpreted as a bride decorated to bring prosperity and abundance,
in this dry, arid village, thereby displaying her intimate relationship between natural materials
and her art.

Rejane Lhote (FRANCE)

Rejane Lhote, was inspired by the ceremony that welcomed her in this village, where her
forehead was marked with the red coloured dye called “tilak.” Not being used to the locals
asking her name and where she came from too often, Rejane came up with a unique idea. In
her project called “Cartography mapping theme,” Rejane asked the local people and Inter-
national artists to tell her their names, which she plotted on a white cloth.

Red thread was used to plot both the height of each person and location of Andore on the cloth
surface. The names were written in grey pencil, both in Hindi and English. The red thread
connects the plotted people and runs continuous beneath the cloth surface depicting the social
connections that bind people relating to a specific place. The universal and simple technique of
sewing and embroidery was used to establish her connection and familiarize her with the locals.
It was an interesting way of cultural exchange and getting to know people.

Harendranath Mahato (INDIA)

Harendranath Mahato“Dust thou art to dust return nest.” This line came from the
poem "A Psalm of life” by Henry Longfellow". Meaning – ‘what came from dust will also return
to dust.’ Dust implies our roots, which are our hidden connections. This root represents our
creator, mother earth. The sole direction we move towards in our life span- towards mother
earth, we return as dust, the way we begin our life. This root connection gives us a sense of
growing on a platform which is our mother earth. This platform supports us all our lives. To
artist Harendranath Mahato, this invisible connection with our roots is a reality.
 In his work, artist Harendranath Mahato has tried to give the impression of such
illusionary platform that gives support. So when he found a plant emerging from nowhere and
growing on a wall, he immediately drew a graphic pot around it with locally available red dye.
This gave it a sense of growing on a platform that has been created temporarily, giving an
illusion of support. But in reality our mother earth gives unconditional support to myriad forms
of life. Through his work, the artist seeks this unconditional support and strength to every life.
In a city, land is a valuable commodity. So plants are potted and kept in the balcony for
decoration. By creating a city balcony in an old building wall, he tried to decorate the old
building and replicate the city’s experience in the rural setup. Decorating was the purpose on
the rural wall. In his perspective, everything is connected to the roots; the platform that
supports us, so one must give due importance to each and every creation of nature, only then
everything becomes valuable.

Alexis Myre (USA)

Alexis Myre’s Installation began as an investigation into the dreams and aspirations of
children of Andore. So her installation depicts thought bubbles, with the names and aspirations
of children written by them on paper. The artist remembers that as a child, even she had similar
dreams, like being a teacher, a doctor, a model, wanting to run a business, etc. She feels these
ambitions are also similar with present day children living in her country. This speaks a universal
language about similarities in thoughts of children from all over the world. Even the school
materials from India like pencil, pen, eraser, and sharpener are universal.
 However she realizes that the future of children in Andore is going to be very different
than those of USA children. She ponders whether these children can lead lives as individuals,
because she feels they are stuck in this mould of social bindings such as an arranged marriage
and are bound to follow in the footsteps of their parents in future. But she does hope that
these children know that they do not have to remain confined to their predetermined destiny.
They can dream and aspire to be what they want.

M.S. Rathore (INDIA)

M.S. Rathore, This added a spiritual touch to the Residency. Rathore’s concept
highlights the essence and structure of Indian society and derives inspiration from the Indian
spiritual values and philosophical ideas, which considers man along with his environment as a
whole unit existing in harmony. So this project symbolizes how man’s existence achieves
harmony with nature, work and self, a philosophy that is relevant even in this contemporary
age. He explains that it is important to maintain this harmony as it results in creation,
prosperity and peace. Art being the perfect tool and a proper medium to create this harmony
inspired his onsite installation through which he also experienced happiness by merging
nature’s creation with his own.
A part of his installation was made using terracotta triangles and lush green plants growing
around it, to form a downward triangle on the soil. The other part was a vertical triangle, made
out of a wooden triangular frame, with green and yellow threads, running parallel within the
frame. A white circular cloth joined the green and yellow in the centre of the vertical triangle.
This symbolizes fertility in Indian philosophy and promotes the thought that creation is possible
when one is connected to the roots, and our soul is in harmony with our surroundings. And this
is the soul of Indian philosophy, through which we can globally retain our Indianans. According
to him, in conjunction with contemporary art field if we keep today’s requirements in mind,
those values, ethics and thoughts can be interpreted and understood in a contemporary
manner relevant to today’s age and worked upon. Then our existence in this contemporary
culture will get nourishment, a support and a link. The people of the world will understand the
reason for our existence even in this fast paced IT world.

Linh Phuong Nguyen (VIETNAM)

Linh Phuong’s art works derived inspirations from the mountainous landscape, daily
ways of life, Indian beliefs and practices, which she experienced in the village. Her creations are
simple and conceptual visuals, created out of materials that corroded, transformed or smelled.
She says, “It is exciting for me to see the work’s slow transformation.”

The people, the vibrant culture around Andore captured her attention. However, the
absence of the element water in any form - lake or a river opened her eyes to the ground
realities. The arduous journey of women to fetch a pail of water from the nearest river inspired
her. So, in an open field, she created a conceptual lake using milk which was her interpretation
of a lake. To her, a cow was revered and worshipped with the belief that when a mother dies
she becomes a cow and when a cow dies it returns to be a human being.
Through her documentary film and photography project, she communicated her
concerns for the trace of things lost in used objects. She asked the villagers to show their daily
life objects such as a sickle, a hoe, a plant, a chair, etc. Through these objects she learned a little
about their daily life, work, concerns and cherished memories. She took a portrait photo of
each person, and of the object that they gave her. They also narrated their stories related with
the object. Using the film as her communication medium she collected the human memory
shared by the Andore villagers.
To the artist, the villagers were sharing something very precious from their personal
space; that gave them undiluted happiness. For example, an empty chair reminded a boy of his
grandparents, a wheat grinder used in a village woman’s parental home, reminding her of her
youthful days. These objects were signs of bygone times, but bringing them to life were the
cherished memories, magnetically recalled by the brain, as these were the connections that
became the most intimate moments attached with their lifeline. The villagers were bonded to
these memories. Linh wants to share these memories associated with the used objects, just as
Linh shared her memory of a T-shirt of her elder sister who was married and lived in a distant
land. But the T-shirt reminded her sister’s presence, and the small moments they shared as
siblings.

Shinobu Mikami (JAPAN)

Shinobu’s art works describe value of humanity. Her art works are connected to each
other through the fact of fusion: time, dimension, material, and people. The concept behind
Shinobu’s work is her encounter with the villagers who are leading totally different lifestyles
and have a different rhythm of life. According to her, an encounter itself is like a seed as it gave
birth to a whole new experience for both the villagers and the artist. This encounter, even
though a simple presence, led to a moment where communication occurred by meeting and
verbal exchanges. With the passage of time, these moments might become memory. But this
little encounter has sowed the seeds of scope and desire for more such encounters.

Shinobu’s art works describes this encounter with the villagers and her creations express her
value for humanity and life. She mixed materials brought from the city and elements of people
found here in the village to make two sculptures using wax as the basic material. She used
paraffin wax as the main material, as being of a transitory nature, it easily moulds, changes its
colour, disappears in a casting process, and burns out to mix with the air. With the wax, she
took hand prints of the villagers. The villagers participated enthusiastically to melt the wax,
pour it into their palms and mould a flower out of it. This was her way of praising the farmers as
a consumer and showing value for their life.
By combining wax with an old style chair that was lying unused, she fused dimension, time,
material and people to create a sculpture symbolising time without numbers. Small wax pieces
were placed in round form in the seat of the chair. Its spaces had wax fillings of handprints of
village people. The sculpture named ‘Clock’ represented her present time spent in the village
and time lost by the chair. It evokes a broad notion of people who may have sat on this chair.
The wax traces their lives.

Shirin Abedinirad (IRAN)

Shirin Abedinirad gave us peak into the past ties that India had with Iran, as she
explored the cultural ties existing during the Mughal-Safavid period. In the 16th century, Iranian
ruler Shah Abbas, from the Safavid dynasty and Moghul Emperor of India, Jehangir
strengthened their diplomatic relations exchanging embassies. As a result, the relationships
between the Mughal and Safavid monarchs were multifaceted in fields such as trade, religion,
art, architecture, culture, literature, calligraphy, politics and diplomacy. Emperor Shah Jehan’s
wife Mumtaz Mahal has Iranian origin. Shah Jehan's court had Persians scholars and poets.
Persian was the official and court language under the Mughals. Indian craftsmen also worked
with Persian masters to produce masterpieces in art and architecture. Iranian painters
introduced the art of portrait and miniature paintings in Mughal courts.

Shirin chose the Mughal-Safavid period for her works as it had a lot of Indo-Iranian connections.
A wall painting in Chihil Sutun Palace of Isfahan city, showing tremendous Indian influence in
painting techniques, inspired Shirin to create a textile block pattern, which can be used as a
design on a bed sheet, coat, bag or even a costume. In her pattern, two kings, Shah Abbas and
Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal along with Jodhabai were shown ‘celebrating peace’, together
on “Yalda-night”.

“Yalda-night” is the celebration of Persian Winter Solstice which is the Northern

Hemisphere's longest night of the year. Occurring around 20th or 21st December each year, it is
popular since ancient times. On 21st December 2010, the artist choose to introduce her
‘celebration of peace’ to the world through the camp “Sowing Seeds” and her textile block
pattern showing Indo-Iranian connections.
 She also used Persian calligraphy for composing the form of the word “Faghan” meaning
Alas!, from the famous poet Bidel Dehlavi’s poem, who was incidentally born in India. She used
an Iranian calligraphy form to write this word on canvas as she found it special. After making a
composition with this word, she asked Indian children to create drawings on it using mehendi
(Henna, Lawsonia inermis) as its colour was dark brown and similar to Iranian calligraphic
colour. Mehendi has been used since ancient times for temporary tattooing and dyeing skin.

Shirin also took photos of Indian costumes worn by village men, women and children as
she was inspired to design clothes for younger generation in Iran. Iranian women cover their
head by scarf. Hence she has special interests in designing headdress, which was inspired by the
colourful scarves, shawls and turbans worn in Rajasthan.

Organize by: KAMAN ART FOUNDATION

Project: Bhupat Dudi

Curator: Vagaram Choudhary